His gift to you

I remember being in my late 20s and 30s, living in Thousand Oaks. The highlight of the summer was the Dallas Cowboys Training Camp at Cal Lutheran University. They made their annual pilgrimage to the college getting ready for the upcoming NFL season. I had two good knees at the time and used to run around and up above the school in the hills for my morning workouts.

They had a fenced in weight room outside next to the track. Hung on the wired fence was a saying, "Your talents are His gift to you, what you do with those talents are your gift to Him!" Over the years I've given that statement a lot of thought. My dad was a tool and die maker, the most talented man I'd ever seen. He could pick up almost anything and fix it, build it or take it apart, anything from rebuilding a car engine to taking up piano playing and then deciding to do piano tuning on the side. It was amazing to watch what he could do with his hands.

I have to smile because I know these are not gifts I've been blessed with. I tend to tighten things to the left and have a propensity to take double the time to do a job I know my dad would do in half the time. But I know my mind and my gifts are totally different than his. Managing and being in a leadership role were not his strong suites, plus he didn't enjoy it anymore than I would enjoy rebuilding the car engine.

So much to being happy and successful in life is doing what you enjoy. The only way you can determine that is to figure out what your gift is. What talents did He give you? Remember those talents are His gift to you, what you do with those talents, are your gift to Him!

Marty Pay is a contributing writer for The Loop newspaper. He can be reached at Marty Pay Farmers Insurance (661) 822-3737.